School’s back in session, and your kids are having a grand time catching up with old friends, making new ones, and getting to know their new teachers. It’s a great time of year! Unfortunately, it’s also the time of year when head lice spreads like the plague.
Don’t despair, use my favorite natural head lice treatment system made up of all natural ingredients to kill lice and help keep them out of your hair for good!
Let’s start with head lice prevention and a public service announcement from an old Backstreet Boys song.
(Head lice) don’t care who you are, where you’re from, or what you did.
Anyone can get head lice. Don’t be embarrassed about it, do something to prevent and treat head lice as soon as you find it.
There are a few things you can do to prevent your child from getting head lice:
- Keep hair pulled up in pretty braids, buns, or ponytails
- Avoid trying on friends’ caps or coats
- Avoid sharing hairbrushes
- Send kids to sleepovers with their own pillows and sleeping bags
Even our best efforts are sometimes less than effective at preventing head lice. Those pesky bugs are persistent! Thankfully, I’ve found a natural cure for head lice that kills head lice infestations within about 3 days. No chemical shampoos, no old-fashioned head soaks made of harmful solvents, just simple, natural essential oil blends that do the trick!
What to do when you get head lice
My daughter recently picked up a mild case of head lice from a girlfriend whose parents chose not to disclose that their child had lice and that they were struggling with treatment.
*Parents, do other parents a favor and please inform!
After doing a little online research, I opted to try a combination of two natural head lice treatments on my three year-old daughter. The rest of the family did preventative treatments too. I did happy dances when I saw how effective these head lice treatments were! Totally killed the lice and saved our daughter’s long hair. Today I’m sharing my weapon of ultimate head lice destruction, the overnight head lice treatment.
Natural Overnight Head Lice Treatment
Weapons of head lice warfare:
- Lice comb
- Plastic shower cap
- Olive oil
- High quality tea tree oil
- High quality lavender oil (optional, but effective!)
- High quality clove oil (optional, but effective!)
Divide your child’s dry hair into small sections and carefully comb through it with a lice comb to remove bugs and eggs. These combs aren’t miracle workers, so you’ll have to use your fingernails to remove any eggs that don’t catch in the comb. Be sure to rinse the comb in hot water from time to time and boil it for 2 minutes when you finish.
Combine 2 ounces of olive oil with about 30 drops of tea tree oil and 10 drops of both lavender and clove oil, if using. Both the “optional” lavender and clove oils are proven head lice killers. Think of them as the “Robin” to the tea tree oil’s “Batman.” I highly recommend using all three of these oils together, but the tea tree oil alone should also do the trick.
Massage your child’s head with a generous coating of this head lice treatment oil mixture and secure it with a hair tie. Pop on a shower cap for 12 hours. Shampoo hair, comb through again with a lice comb, and blow dry hair on a warm to hot setting. If you want to be extra sure that this overnight head lice treatment kills all the lice, repeat it nightly for 3 nights.
Next, move on to treatment #2: Daytime Natural Head Lice Treatment. Don’t skip it!
Using both the overnight and daytime head lice treatments TOGETHER are my secret weapon for combating head lice. They work effectively to guarantee 100% head lice eradication in less than two weeks. (Most lice will be dead after the initial overnight treatments, but we continue to apply the daytime treatment and comb out hair daily over two weeks to kill eggs and any lice that may still be lurking around.)
Follow my Natural Living Pinterest board for more naturally safe and healthy ideas for your family.
Oh yikes! I would be so mad if another child’s parents didn’t tell me their kid had lice! But I’m glad you found such a safe way to get rid of it! And thank you for that fantastic Backstreet Boys throwback haha!
Thanks, Chelsea. Not sure what inspired the Backstreet Boys lyric, but it just came to me, haha. Hope you have a great week and don’t need to use the lice treatment anytime soon.
Thanks for sharing this. I’ll be filing it away on pinterest for when I need it… if I need it. Fingers crossed I won’t.
Marissa
Fingers definitely crossed that you won’t need the lice treatment, Marissa!
Head lice is NO fun. I had it a time or two when I was in Elementary school. I’m not sure about the science behind it, but my stepmom always told me that lice don’t like the smell of vanilla so I used to spray vanilla body spray behind my ears for school.
Hmm. I’ve never heard of head lice not liking vanilla, but since it’s my favorite perfume scent, I’m all for it! I had lice a few times in elementary school too, and it was such a pain to get rid of. So glad that I don’t have to use chemicals on my kids like my mom used on me.
and keep the hats clean! 😀
My girls haven’t had lice before, but I shudder to think of trying to comb out their long curly hair with those tiny combs. Thanks for this post.
Definitely sharing this. Love that there is a chemical free alternative to attacking lice. Thanks!
I love essential oils!!!! I’ve not gotten to use it on head lice though….yet. maybe one day it will come! :/ I hope not! Great tips!
Awesome recipe! Can I replace the olive oil with coconut oil?
You sure can, Bianca. The most important part is the essential oils and now that you mention it, coconut oil melts at a lower temperature, meaning it will likely wash out of hair even better than olive oil. Great thinking!
Will this kill the eggs too?
Holly, I don’t honestly know if it will kill the eggs or not, but if you’re diligent about removing them and try the overnight treatment in coordination with the daytime spray treatment, it will eliminate the lice. I always check my kids’ hair for eggs daily for about 2 weeks following the initial treatment, just to be sure we catch any we’d missed.
Where can i find your step 2 please?
Here you go, Renee: Step 2 of the natural head lice treatment.
Where can I see the exact oils that you used that work
They’re linked within the post, Elizabeth. If not, I recommend buying from Rocky Mountain Oils, the new name for what I refer to as Native American Nutritionals.
Hey, Jelli! Just loved your blog. It looks so nice and playful.
Head lice infestation is a nightmare and I feel for you. Parents usually don’t disclose that their kid is having head lice infestation and this is what people should be aware of. I believe all of us hate head lice and the reason a person keep it hiding is due to the isolation of kid. No body wants that. There should be awareness about it on a large scale.
What is the day time remedy you give great night time then say to use regular daytime routine
OMgoodness, Nicole, I’m SO glad you pointed out that after all this time I hadn’t linked to the daytime treatment from this post. So sorry for the missing info. Here’s all you need to know about daytime lice treatment, and it’s super easy!! Hope this helps.
What if I can’t do the overnight treatment “overnight?” Are a couple of hours just a beneficial as overnight? I love my oils so hoping this works. And I didn’t have olive oil so I used fractionated coconut oil instead, hope that works. Thanks for you help.
Coconut oil should be just as effective. Hope it worked out for you, Dawn.
Do you really keep the night treatment on for 12 hours?
Yes! We keep it on the full time the child’s sleeping, which in our case, is indeed 12 hours.
Thanks so much for this! My daughter has had what I thought was dry scalp for maybe 2 weeks. I had some tea tree oil shampoo on hand, so I have washed her hair with this at least 3 or 4 times to try to get rid of it. Last night, we finally realized that it was NOT dry scalp. Duh! Anyway, I think the tea tree oil shampoo actually helped get rid of some it, but there were still a lot of nits attached to her hair shafts. So, we did the overnight treatment last night, and I have the daytime spray all ready to go. I am so thankful that I have found a toxic-free way to treat this! Thanks again!
Paige, I’m so glad you ID’d the problem and took the next steps. Hope you’ve got a happy little head with no more itching now.
Can I use extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil in place of the olive oil? Tgank you!:)
Any liquid oil should work well, Jennifer!